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Friday, March 30, 2012

Weekly School Wrap Up - Spring Break Week 1

We are technically on spring break this week, but I find if we just don't do anything school related we tend to forget lots of things so we did a few things each day.

Our school week usually starts with me laminating various things on Sunday evening. I use Sunday evening as my time to prep for the school week.

One thing we worked on this week was more training with chores. They have chore charts but I made one with pictures for my 2 1/2 year old so he could see what he needs to do and I made the 2 older kids really work on reading their list and completing it. My older son helps my daughter to read her list and then they check off what they have done. I will talk more later how we do chores and what ages we start doing what.

She wipes down the little bathroom and my older son wipes down the big bathroom

School Stuff

My daughter is doing a number bug matching busy bag activity.

I made these "sandpaper" letters with felt instead of sandpaper. My little guy loves them. He likes to put them into an old yogurt container. I just cut a good size whole in the top. His sister helps him call out the correct letter name and sound. He also likes to trace the letters with his finger.

Fun stuff - we took another busy bag activity but used it for something else - my son stacked the cups and then he used his Bey Blades to knock them over. I gave him a points system to use so at least some math was done here.

We also have been working on making these adorable alphabet bean bags (I say "we" because I have lots of help from my stepmom and my mamaw). I am still working on finishing them but the kids have really liked playing with the ones I have completed. I will share more about this in a post coming soon. I will include ways to use these to further a child's learning while having fun.

My daughter just put them in a row and then she and I used them to spell and read some simple words.

While I was making these I used popcorn to fill them because we have about 40 lbs. of it and I just wanted to use what I had on hand so I decided to make some quick and fun trays for the kids to play with while I finished sewing. They loved it.

Also, I signed up for a free trial of Reading Eggs this week. If you want to read a good review of the program, please visit One Blessed Mama's Blog.

My 4 1/2 year old daughter loves it. I do mean LOVES IT! She has been doing 2-3 lessons a day. She isn't very tech savvy so using the mouse is a little slow for her but she does pretty well.

I have also signed up my 1st grader because I wanted to see what they have for older kids. He likes it but doesn't love it as much as my daughter. He does about a lesson every two days.

I am seriously considering paying for it at least for my daughter because it seems to really be helping her. I think it might be worth it and we may just do it a month at a time. I would encourage you to check out the free trial to see what you think.

We have also been working on some addition flash cards with my 1st grader and we have been playing some nonsense words games. Other than that we have been taking it easy.

7 comments:

I love your bean bags, so cute. We may give reading eggs a try for my 4 yr old my 5 year old just finished head sprout ( it's just like reading eggs) and now she can read at a second grade level. My 4 year old doesn't really like head sprout that much though.

How creative you are! (How do you find the time? LOL) I love the felt letters and those wonderful bean bags! I'm sure the kids will have TONS of fun learning times with those things!

Oh, my youngest son just finished up a free trial of Reading Eggs this past week. I am still deciding on whether to PURCHASE a membership. He was enjoying it until the last few days...but he was also complaining about ALL school work so I don't know if it was the Reading Eggs or school in general.

@Our Side of the MountainAh yes, finding the time, it takes up A LOT of my time. I don't do a lot else (besides cooking and cleaning) and since my kids are little we don't do a lot of outside activities either.

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